Cee’s Compose Yourself is back – with a lesson on post editing black and white photos. Here are my examples. I’ve tried to use the best result in the enlarged photo – but best is very subjective and the choice which photo to choose depends on the context and on what one would like to stress. So for what it is worth, here goes
Cee’s Compose Yourself Lesson: #24 Black and White: Post Editing
Cee’s Compose Yourself has turned to black and white photography this month.
Textures can make a black and white photo work. Furs and feathers of animals can thus show off in a black and white picture.
In this picture, the different textures of the individual light feathers and the skin of the dark comb and wattle are effectively juxtaposed.
This pony stands out from the blur of the background. It works well in monochrome because of the colour differences in the coat and mane but equally because the longer, curlier hair of the mane creates a different texture as shorter coat. The background stays a ablur.
The detail of this sculpture is completely different as it is made up of hard metal.
Yet it works because the roughness and flaking of the material creates an interesting texture that becomes visible in the monochrome.
Three different textures dominate in this picture – the polished plastic of the spectacle frames next to the soft smoothness of the skin next to the frizzy hair accentuate this portrait.
The same effect can be seen here – smooth skin next to hair. I find that often portraits work better in black and white, they can be much more flattering to the subject.
And here a last example of difference in texture, again facial hair but it is juxtaposed with the shiny silver beads.
Contrast can of course also come from light differences. In the above pictures this was a visible component as well but it is more pronounced in the following ones.
The bright white bench surrounded by dark, almost black foliage. Contrast doesn’t come much harder than this.
The colour version of this photo shows off the newer, lighter green gingko leaves against the older, darker ones. It works well in green but I think is more dramatic in black and white.
This gerbera also contrasts the front petals with the dark stem and leaves but has shades of grey to offer as well.
This filled tulip stands out against the dark background but the leaves show contrast in themselves – the grey feathery details almost look as if drawn with a thin brush.
Cee’s Compose Yourself Challenge: #23 Black and White: The Basics
Cee’s Compose Yourself Challenge is called “Guide the viewer and flipping photos” and it is all about guiding (manipulating?) the viewer to see what the photographer wants him to see. I found it very challenging to find photos I took for this task because it demands to look at a photograph without preconceived ideas of what I wanted to show, or the history of a particular photo. One needs to look only at the composition which is difficult if it is a familiar scene. Let’s see if I managed it, though.
Cee’s first hint is that the viewer will usually look at the brightest spot of a picture first.
The tattoo here is the focal point of the photo as it is bang in the middle but also highlighted by the streak of light which falls directly on the exposed part of the young woman’s decolleté.
Another natural bright spot in the picture. The face of the sleeping man is the central point of the picture.
The next photo, taken from underneath the Kochertal bridge (incidentally with 185 metres the highest bridge in Germany) is marred by the bright spot in the righthand corner. Instead of cropping the photo I resolved the problem by stepping a bit closer and tightening the shot (and at the same time straightening the line of the pylons)
With this picture of tempting fruit taking at a market stall the green of the background contrasts beautifully with the red cherries and at the same time harmonises with the green stems but the silver-white, out-of-focus scoop in the lefthand corner distracts the viewer. I resolved this by cropping (loosing also the metal border at the bottom).
This huge plastic sculpture on the side of one of the busiest innercity roads in Munich guides the eye of the viewer in an S-curve starting at the lower part of the leg and following the line of the body.
Here as well the viewer starts in the middle, almost at the bottom of the picture and follows the silvery stream in a curve, a twisted S leading off to the right.
But Cee’s next explanation was how flipping a photo can increase it’s impact because of the different direction a viewer’s eye takes. It tried it with this photo and although the difference is relatively subtle it is still perceptible:
Because of the slim but bright stem in the right corner the eye is drawn towards this direction. Working with students who come from a right-to-left writing culture I wonder whether they will naturally reverse their approach to the direction of a photo, i.e. will look from right to left and therefore the flipping will have the opposite effect.
Another example where the flipped photo is more appealing because the movement of the eye follows the down-up left-right movement associated with reading and writing Latin letters. The original is the top photo – a river surfer in the middle of Munich where a step in the river Isar creates this unique permanent wave and where – so I am told – river surfing was invented a couple of decades ago.
As I said I found it hard to find suitable photos for this challenge but this is always why I liked it so much. It forced me to go back to my photos and try to look at them with a fresh approach.
Cee’s Compose Yourself Challenge: #22 Guide the Viewer and Flipping Photos
This is an entry to http://ceenphotography.com/2016/03/23/cees-compose-yourself-photo-challenge-19-geometry-in-photography/ .
Cee is right: after a while you see geometric figures almost everywhere. To start off, here are some obvious choices, all from the same church in Mönchengladbach, Germany:
The geometric forms are obvious and don’t need further explanations.
From man-made, manageable shapes to the grandiosity of nature. Many mountains are pyramid-shaped which is rendered as a triangle in two-dimensional space:
And from the same corner of the earth, the Berner Oberland in Switzerland, the unmistakable triangle of the Eiger, overwhelming, breathtaking, and just plain HUGE:
I seem to have a propensity to triangles as the following photos show quite clearly (all taken at the Rugby World Championship last autumn, in Newcastle, South Africa playing Scotland). Whether it’s a group of players:
or individuals:
I found one without a triangle, though:
And just to end up with something completely different:
This photo challenge was about contrasting colours. As a latecomer to this kind of challenge, I’m just putting my best if imperfect (sic!) pictures forward.
I’m just recycling this shot but it seems so appropriate for the contrast of green and purple.
Purple and yellow is next,with a more blueish purple.
And here the more traditional red – green combinations, from opposite sides of the calendar, the bright red holly berries which are almost synonymous with Christmas, and the deep red of ripe cherries which signify mid-summer.
Nature, particularly flowers seem to lend themselves readily to contrasting images but sometimes contrast is found on street level as well. Both these shop fronts were found in Edinborough.
And now for something completely different, the yellow and blue contrasts in these fantasy uniforms from a German carnival regiment in Mainz. At least those two gentlemen were enjoying themselves.
Until I started looking through my photos, I hadn’t realised how often it was that contrasting colours were the reason I liked a particular photo better than another one.
Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: #18 Contrasting Colors
pictures imperfect blog 